My New Favorite Sourdough

I love baking all kinds of bread, but a basic sourdough loaf is an essential staple at our house. Good with everything from blue cheese to blueberry jam, and quite possibly even better unadorned, we always feel something is missing if there isn’t a loaf resting on the cutting board, ready for a quick snack or a hearty sandwich.
I first tried this recipe, adapted from the Vermont Sourdough in Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes, about a month ago. I loved it then, and have made it several more times since, to make sure the first time wasn’t just beginner’s luck. Nope; this one is a real winner. It’s a plain, honest, not-too-sour sourdough with a touch of pumpernickel for depth of flavor. With a thin, crisp crust and soft but substantial crumb, this is now my go-to bread for everyday good eating, anytime, with anything.

The original recipe calls for 125% hydration starter. I adjusted it to work with mine at 100%, and made a few other tweaks as well. I am calling it Norwich Sourdough, in honor of the home town of Hamelman’s King Arthur Flour bakery. And this charming Vermont town, as it happens, was my home, too, for five memorable years.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Divide it into 400g – 500g pieces. I usually make four 400g loaves and refrigerate the rest to use for pizza dough later. Preshape the dough pieces into light balls.

Sprinkle the balls lightly with flour, cover loosely with plastic, and let rest for 15 minutes.

Shape into batards and place seam-side-up in a floured couche or linen-lined bannetons.

Slip the couche or bannetons into a large plastic bag or cover with plastic wrap and proof at room temperature for 2 – 2.5 hours. Alternatively, the loaves can be proofed for about 1.5 hours at room temperature, then refrigerated for 2 – 16 hours and baked directly out of the refrigerator; this will yield a tangier bread with a lovely, blistered crust.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with baking stone, to 475F. You will also need steam during the initial phase of baking, so prepare for this now.

Turn the proofed loaves onto a semolina-sprinkled peel or parchment. Slash each one with two overlapping cuts that are almost parallel to the long axis of the batard.

Once the loaves are in the oven, turn the heat down to 450F. For 400g loaves, bake for 12 minutes with steam, and another 15 – 18 minutes without steam. I leave the oven door cracked open a bit for the last 5 minutes of this time. The crust should be a deep brown. Then turn off the oven and leave the loaves in for 5 minutes longer, with the door ajar, to help them dry. Larger loaves will need to be baked longer.

Cool on a wire rack. Don’t cut until the loaves are completely cool, if you can manage it!

I’m proofing this in linen lined baskets as I type this. I’m not sure I got the shaping tight though….I just now read a comment about the dough not keeping it’s shape after removal from the baskets. Hmmmm. Well, only time (two hours to be precise) will tell. I think that was the problem in the garlic cheese loaf I made two nights ago. I will most definitely pay more attention to shaping a tighter boule or battan next time. I just hope I haven’t ruined these. My family liked the flattened garlic cheese loaf despite it being flat like a focaccia, so I guess they won’t fire me if these flatten out as well LOL

Well, I’m happy to report that the loaves most definitely didn’t collapse when I removed them from the linen lined baskets! Hooray! I used a mixture of semolina flour and cornmeal to dust the linen and boy did it make for a spectacular tasty and crispy crust! Now I know how much choosing the right flour for dusting the linen can affect the outcome of the bread. Yum! Even my very skeptical daughter who hates everything (a real modern day ‘Mikey’) said the bread was “soooooo yuummmmy!”. Success! Thanks again Susan for helping my bread baking reach new heights! (and on a side note…my goodness, the recent … Ehem … comments are, well, colorful. I’m sorry they’ve messed with your site like this.)

hi,
sorry this is a noob question, do bear with me, I have grown my starter and am starting my second refreshment later tonight. With regards to the second refreshment I add more flour and water to make 360g? then leave it to mature before adding to the final mix?
The reason im asking is hamelmans vermont sourdough takes two tbsp of mature starter and then mixes with flour n water to create the levain. So sorry a little confused..I understand yours is a variation but would like to be sure and not stuff up the bread.

Hi, i’m a novice to the sourdough world but am a fast learner and really want to make this aforementioned yummy loaf (My New favourite Sourdough). To save my confusion not least given the myriad of comments on this page could you please point me to the link that also shows ‘how to’ make the starter you used with this recipe so that I too can make this exact bread from start to finish for myself? 🙂

Hi Susan,
I just baked two loaves and two more is in the oven baking. I don’t have the proper tool to slash so I just a sharp paring knife. On of the bread looked like an Incredible Hulk muscle bulge! hahaha. Otherwise the bread tasted so good. You are right we couldn’t resist- didn’t wait for it to cool. 🙂 Thanks for the how-to. 🙂

Hi Susan,
Thanks for the recipe! I’ve used my northern CA starter multiple times, mostly with unsuccessful results. I made two loaves over the weekend using your proportions (cut in half) and folding/proofing times. The flavor was great and the rise was impressive! My wife and I had to keep watching the show through the oven window. I didn’t get the dark crust color you show in your pics and added 5 minutes baking time. I think that means my oven needs cleaning. 😀

thank you so, so much for providing such beautifully-written recipes. linear, concise, detailed. embedded LINKS, for heaven’s sake, to terms and techniques the baking neophytes among us may not know. you and your blog are heaven-sent.

a question for you: i’ve had (mostly) lovely success with my first-ever wild yeast sourdough via your norwich formula. using lava rock steam i baked two of the loaves off day-of, and cold-proofed the other two for about fourteen hours (certainly not over sixteen hours proof). the retarded loaves proofed to a significantly larger size than the day-of loaves; i temped them on the counter for the hour or so of pre-heating (during which they didn’t seem to expand any further) scored and loaded. as far as i could tell my scoring, steaming and loading techniques were all the same as for the day-ofs. while they baked up nicely and- internally, at least- are even better than the day-of loaves (i prefer a tangier, chewier loaf with a more shattery crust, and these were both), they really weren’t as pretty. with my day-of loaves i got ears (ears!!! first time ever!) and a really nice even expansion with big open scores, but with my retarded loaves the scores didn’t open as wide or as deep, and the loaves themselves spread a touch more horizontally than vertically. they were a beautiful deep golden brown, but the scores were far flatter and the oven spring significantly reduced.

i was originally thinking over-proofed, but the crumb says no. open and even.

Heather – It sounds like the loaves could have been maximally proofed, i.e., not too long to produce a nice crumb, but too long to allow for that extra oven-spring “kick” that gives you the nice ears. When I retard loaves, I put them directly into the oven from the refrigerator. Also, sometimes things just work differently for reasons we can’t explain: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2009/04/26/the-trouble-with-experiments/

I’ve been building my starter for 2 weeks. I have a gallon jug in the fridge full of it! Made a half recipe of the Norwich today – half of that I made a little boule with, and the other half we used for homemade pizza! My son is waiting by the oven right now for the bread to come out..
Love your blog, it’s been very helpful!

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What a fantastic experience! Followed your directions to make my starter, and used it yesterday on this recipe. My loaves turned out great! I am just getting started with bread, although I have been making it for twenty years. Just never really thought about what I do … So many things I do unconsciously you have explained. I am learning a ton as well. Thanks for the inspirational site.

The picture of your bread is exactly what I want!
I was raised on rye-with-caraway and it surely was a sourdough, but now just a wonderful and literally very distant memory. I’m firmly convinced that it’s all about gluten, and you can’t find gluten in a rice field.
Whereas there’s lots of good ‘european-style’ bread in the capitol region, later migrating to the interior of nowhere has its price – if you want anything resembling real bread you fast learn to bake some. It’s not so easy in the Philippines where there is no such thing as rye flour, all the bakery wholesalers here just give me a confused look when I ask. Ditto there’s no gluten extender. You can only buy “first class” (cake) flour or “third class” which latter is what barely passes for hard-wheat flour with only a marginally higher gluten content, the closest you can find for bread so that’s what I buy by the sack.

My kids are (of course) weaned to the asian staple – rice, but since I started baking my variant of french bread they’re constantly pestering me for bread. I want something better though within the limitations of what I can get to bake with, so time to try sourdough. The first thing I need is “starter”, so how to create a starter here? I asked my wife to bring me some rice straight from the field in the mountains, extracted a handful of grains and threw them into an open jar with a spoon of sugar, some flour and water in the proper proportions. Two weeks later after semi-proper care and feeding it wasn’t doing much of anything, so I switched to morning and night feedings. Meanwhile I was thinking … “what here is naturally fermenting?” – the answer was right in my glass – “tuba!” (local fermented coconut ‘wine’). Starter #2 was just tuba and flour, and within 2 days it was insanely active and smelled great – enough to make my wife wrinkle her nose and roll her eyes at me.
Meanwhile, starter #1 was actually doing something. I quickly started using both for baking and after a month just combined the two – now I have what could be termed “wild rice and tuba sourdough starter”, and it does yield passable sourdough bread.

Since I’m unable to get the flour and gluten I really need, I’ve realized that scientific measurements don’t mean a thing here. I just save all my “discarded” feeding-time starter in a large bowl in the fridge. Two days before baking time it comes out to warm, wake up, be fed, and the next day becomes the base for my sponge. Given an ambient household temperate in the low 30’s celsius with constant high humidity, oh yes, that’s *sponge*! The third day is baking day; add about the right amount of extra flour, water to achieve proper hydration, salt, often a Tbsp of olive oil, plus a cup of my recently-fed stock starter. Mix, cover, wait until it proofs up nicely, then proceed with everyone else’s instructions.

The result isn’t yet quite as good as the pics here and I doubt ever can be without the right high-gluten flours, but it’s still the best bread that can be found short of several days travelling including plane flights. My kitchen is a day closer than any airport and tomorrow is baking day again. 🙂

I made my first sourdough starter and my first loaf of bread was made this morning. The crust was brown and crusty the taste of the bread was good but it was a little sticky. I am not sure if it just needed more time in the oven. Do you have any suggestions?

Hi Susan,
I always have some issues when baking this bread. This time, the loaves spread out completely while proofing. Then after reshaping and proofing for a while I put them in the fridge overnight. In the morning they didn’t seem proofed enough. I baked them off and the bottom of one of the loaves cracked open (this happens often with some other breads), and the breads just seem incredible heavy, although they got a pretty good oven spring. These problems occur often with me and I was wondering if you could please let me know what I may be doing wrong? Thank you!

Even though my sourdough starter is very active, lately when I bake the bread after it has been retarded in the fridge for 2 hours, it isn’t rising like it used to. The results are very dense & heavy. Any suggestions?

Such a beautiful recipe, thank you! I found it easy enough to use ice cubes and a spray bottle to get that bit of steam at the beginning. The end product was golden brown, crispy adams chewy, just perfect! 🙂

That top photo of your Norwich Sourdough looks so good, I am tempted to bite the computer screen, ha ha.
Seriously, I am attempting to make the bread this morning. I feed my starter every morning. 1/4 cup of starter/ 1/4water / 1/4 flour. I usually discard any left over starter.
Today, I took my 1/4 of starter out and used the rest, 110g starter, to make the 360g of white starter for the recipe. (110g starter + 125g water +125g white flour)
I am new when it comes to making bread with a starter. Did I put to much starter in?
Thanks for your time! I love your site!

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Thanks for the info on steaming inside the oven. It has solved the puzzle about getting the bread to rise. I started making bread when I could not find unsalted breads and I never do use salt at all in either my yeast or sourdough breads. I do add seeds to taste. Thank you for the steaming tips.

Hi There, Ive made this loaf a few times now. It tastes great. Ive even started it with your starter recipe, but its seem really wet. I cant get it to hold shape. Im using a Spelt White Flour and a Rye flour at the exact recipe. What am I doing wrong. Is it ok to use less water. Any help really appreciated.

I’ve made this a couple times and used spent grain that I’d dried and ground as a replacement for the rye in my last batch. It came out very dark (the grains were chocolate roasted) and toasty, and smells amazing. I’m waiting for the loaves to cool down and having a hard time restraining myself.

This recipe is excellent, and I plan on experimenting with lots of different spent grains in the future. Thank you so much for the recipe.

Hi Susan,
I have been baking sourdough on and off for 2 years now. This weekend I baked 2 loaves using the William Alexander’s recipe in “52 loaves”. Quite happy with them but I baked one in a Dutch Oven and one on a baking sheet. I honestly think the Dutch oven one has a better rise, crust, and more air holes. What do you think of the Dutch oven method and why do most artisan bakers tent not to use it? Especially for home baking without having to feed an army, why not using it?
Thank you!
Dawn

Hi Dawn, When I started baking sourdough,I used a ceramic Dutch oven with very good results. However, it was extremely heavy, so I bought a clay tangine cooker at Goodwill and it worked fabulously ($3.50). Unfortunately I put it in the dishwasher and it picked up a really nasty odor (live and learn!). So, I just bought an elegant Emile Henri cloche type baker. The loaves are good in any of the cookware I’ve used–the most important thing being that it allows for steam at the start of cooking. Good luck!
Carol

My 1st attempt at making sourdough and i tried your recipe but i need help. My dough seems to be getting wetter and stickier as i leave it to ferment at room temp for 2.5 hrs before putting attempting to shape it by which time i end up having to knead by hand in order for it to be more manageable. I have tried thrice, excluding the 4th which i threw away, and end up with same results. Have tried reducing water.

I live in a country (philippines) where our weather is about 28-30 degrees Celsius so quite hot and very humid. Is this affecting the dough? How should i adjust recipe to account for this? Should i also knead it a bit more before fermenting (i knead with kitchen aid at low speed for 4 minutes, at which time dough still looks like a shaggy mess).

I am not the author of the post, but I can confirm that in my experience dough will absolutely become wetter and stickier when the air humidity and temperature are high. Have you tried proofing the dough in the refrigerator, I find that makes it easier to handle. Maybe have a look at the forums at thefreshloaf.com, I remember seeing posts there from bakers in tropical climates. Best of luck!

Hi
I am wanting to make your bread , can I use a different flour instead of the Rye as I can’t get it here in France only with yeast already added , don’t know if that will work or not .
Hope you can help
Christina

I followed this recipe halving it, leaving the dough over night in the fridge. In the morning I was disappointed that the dough was showing little rise. Instead of baking it cold I left it out of the fridge for about 3 hours, then baked in my clay baker. Awesome oven spring, best loaf I’ve ever baked – 30 minutes at 500, then 15 with top off at 450. I’m going to experiment with this as my main recipe. Many thanks.

Wow! Just baked my first ‘Norwich Sourdough’ this morning, sliced it now and had some for lunch, it’s amazing. Much better then the other high hydration sourdough boules I used to make! Thanks a bunch for the lovely recipe, I’m on my way to make another one for tomorrow! 😉

Made a few adjustments to my schedule and preferences but this, I must say, is bound to be my new base jump-off recipe. This one gets tucked away for certain. Also, if anyone is on the fence, opt for the longest possible final proof retard… the loaves are far easier to work with going from banetton to dutch oven, hold their shape better, blister more during the bake, and are just a nicer flavor overal – it’s subtle but worth the overnight in the fridge.

thank you for posting this recipe!!! it is amazing, it was published almost 10 years ago, and I couldn’t imagine then that I would bake bread some day. I baked this bread yesterday and it came out fantastic!!!! thanks again for sharing the recipe!

I have done this recipe many times over the years as I’ve moved around the country/world (I always use fridge retardation adaption), and after a few tries/adjustments to a new environment/kitchen, it always works. But, one common thread in very success and failure is that the final loaf has always been heavier and more rubbery than I would like or when compared to that fluffy picture you have of yours.

I have now done this recipe three times. Once halved and as one single batard, once halved and as a single boule – both RT, and finally this morning full size and retarded over night, with all fermenting and bulk proofing also done in the fridge.

It is a fantastic recipe. All three times the bread has come out perfect, and yes, I did have to make some adjustments in the proofing time due to the hot and humid weather here in Queensland, Australia, but my does this recipe make it easier than any others I have tried.

I’ve also adjusted the flour to be all white for the last two attempts, on account of having run out of rye, and it still works perfectly well.

It seems that it’s really easy to get a gauge for when the dough is ready, due to the relative little handling that is done, and I think that’s what I’ve been missing from other recipes – including the Dan Lepard’s the Handmade Loaf’s White Leaven Bread.

Accidentally used bread flour instead of all purpose. I mixed by hand. I was wondering why it was a bit hard to get to the shaggy dough stage, but I didn’t want to add more water, this being my first time to make the recipe, and then it took so long to get to the medium development stage, the dough was stiff when that was achieved, and was beginning to lose the elasticity I had attained. I am worried that I won’t be able to fold it. Should I bother with the folds or let it ferment unmolested? Thanks!

I’ve tried many sourdough recipes with disappointing results but this has to be the best. My first loaf with this recipe was a great success. I will toss the other recipes as this is truly a winner.
Thank you!